The industry of organizing and operating trade show events is complicated by common concerns that patrons have for protecting their wares from being stolen. Typically, trade show booths have walls or partitions on all but one of its sides. One side is left open to maximize the presentation area for potential viewers during the trade show. While this opening is particularly useful during trade show hours, it can present a problem during the off hours.
During the off hours of a show, it is convenient for booth operators to keep their products and wares in the booths to avoid the repetition of having to set up for each day of the show. However, this poses certain risk. Due to the open nature of the booth, there is little protection for the products and wares from being stolen.
One potential solution to the problem is to restrict entry to the trade show venue. However, taking this action does not prevent those who need to enter from stealing merchandise from a patron's booth. Moreover, hiring security guards to protect each booth is not economical.
The prior art does not teach an acceptable apparatus for providing a secure enclosure in the context of trade show booths. For example, partition systems taught by Hegg et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,973), Gassler (U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,786), Jones (U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,172), and Izatt et al. (U.S. Pat. 5,816,000) could not adequately serve this purpose. While they generally teach partition systems that may be used to construct discrete spaces for use as office dividers or convention exhibition booths, these systems are not designed to provide removable openings that satisfy the needs of trade show booth operators. In short, they lack a design for coverage of spacious openings while simultaneously promoting easy installation, removal and compact storage.